Investigating a breach without alerting the attacker | Intel Drop

AJ Nash explains why discovering a breach can shift advantage to attackers, citing CrowdStrike data showing breakout times as low as 48 minutes—and even 51 seconds. He argues that response plans must account for sophisticated adversaries who, once alerted, may deploy secondary payloads, destroy forensic evidence, or escalate. Nash outlines “the quiet pursuit”: keeping investigative activity isolated from production systems, making research appear to originate outside the compromised network, and maintaining an internal audit trail, so teams can gather intelligence and respond decisively without triggering escalation.